Fiction review: 'Boulevard,' by Bill Guttentag

FICTION REVIEW

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Boulevard

By Bill Guttentag

(Pegasus Books; 304 pages; $20)

At some point, most writers feel the tug to stretch beyond what they've previously written. That must be especially true of genre writers.

Bill Guttentag's debut novel, "Boulevard," is billed as a literary crime novel, with "literary" suggesting that Guttentag wants to rouse his reader to care not only about solving the crime, but also about his characters. For the most part, Guttentag succeeds, because one of his main characters is highly sympathetic. Casey, a 15-year-old runaway, is barely surviving the ugly side of Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard. Her cohorts are other teenage runaways, each with his or her tragic history of parental abuse, neglect or stupidity.

The book opens with Casey darting out of the iconic Chateau Marmont, after killing a high-powered, politically connected lawyer who has a sexual penchant for street kids. By revealing the identity of the murderer early on - a question that usually creates the main tension for a straightforward crime novel - Guttentag shifts the question to why Casey did it. And that inquiry involves motivation, which requires a more thorough exploration of character.

To heighten tension, the novel includes the point of view of Jimmy McCann, a cop who's been handed the honor of trying to solve the murder. And it is an honor - if he solves the crime, he'll be promoted. But McCann is not the stereotypical cop. His son, Rancher, has run away and is part of the ragtag teenage runaways living on Sunset Boulevard.

Guttentag, who teaches at Stanford, has a background in film and television. He's the recipient of two Academy Awards for his films "Twin Towers" and "You Don't Have to Die." He also created the NBC series "Crime & Punishment." Guttentag's background becomes evident because the architecture of "Boulevard" emulates the structure of so many films. The novel opens with the murder, but very soon moves backward in time, interweaving flashbacks that reveal more about Casey and Jimmy.

Guttentag doesn't go much beyond cinematic characterization. Casey's history is stereotypical: She ran away from her father's house, where she'd been abused, only to have her mother, who was living with a boyfriend, say she couldn't stay with her either. "Everything in her life sucked, and Hollywood was the lighthouse."

When she arrives in Los Angeles, Casey immediately becomes prey to a pimp. She's raped and beaten and put out on the street as a prostitute. She escapes, and is befriended by another street kid, Paul. But soon Casey finds herself "doing dates," stealing and begging to make money.

Through Jimmy's perspective, the reader is exposed to a wider landscape of grittiness: the wannabe actresses working in sex clubs, the pimps and addicted gamblers. And the subculture of street kids brings in more pimps, johns, drug addicts. For long sections of the novel, the murder slips into the background, but that doesn't mean the tension drags.

Guttentag's style is also cinematic, with short chapters that almost read like movie scenes - lots of action, often violent or sexual, and long passages of dialogue. When the interior of a character is presented, it's often predictable or weighted with sentimental excess. After serving a john, Casey thinks, "[K]ids shouldn't have to do this. Nobody should have to do this."

But in the end, Guttentag manages to bring all the story lines together in a conclusion that leaves you morally conflicted, yet surprisingly satisfied.